Nalu Week 2017 Stories
by ImpracticalDemon
Summary: A collection of whatever short stories I write for Nalu Week 2017. Will likely be a mix of humour and fluff, possibly a little more adult at times. Prompts are: DAY 1: Nostalgia Day 2: Tarot Day 3: Flaws Day 4: Body Language Day 5: Mask Day 6: Tattoo Day 7: Intertwined Hope you enjoy!
1. Living Dangerously

**Submission for Nalu Week 2017, Day 1 ~** Hope you enjoy it!

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 **Living Dangerously  
** Prompt: Nostalgia

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They were bruised and beaten and exhausted. Lucy's head ached, and only the thought of a clean, hot bath made climbing the stairs even remotely possible. Even Natsu's usually unquenchable fire - haha, not funny - was noticeably dim.

"Why do we do it, Luce?" he asked, for the third or fourth time. "It's not like it pays well. I mean" - he rubbed a dirty hand through his pink hair, but it wasn't physically possible for it to stick up any further - "look at us! And I hate having to get new clothes."

"Well, there's the goodwill factor," Lucy mumbled, too tired - and too much in general agreement - to argue the point. "Just… just sit on the couch and don't touch anything. You're filthy and I get the bath first."

Natsu didn't so much as twitch in response, let alone protest. He sat down on the couch, closed his eyes, and laid his head back on the soft blue fabric. Lucy almost felt concerned. As they had grown closer, and had oh-so-slowly begun to admit that they were moving toward a _different_ \- they avoided the term "better" - relationship, Natus had developed a tendency to joke about just taking baths together to save heat and water.

Lucy leaned in the doorway to the bathroom, eyes tracing Natsu's familiar profile and the clean lines of his sharp chin and well-defined shoulders and collar-bones. For a moment, she seriously considered taking Natsu up on his offer. He would definitely keep the bathwater warm. Then she felt herself redden and shook her head with a sigh. She was obviously _way_ too tired to be making important decisions right now.

Instead, she rubbed her temples and said: "Happy bailed early. That made it harder."

"Yeah. Whatever happened to 'friends forever' and 'I'll always be by your side'? I mean geez! I remember when he helped me fight Cobra! Clouds of poisonous gas everywhere an' Erik predicting our every move…"

"I still remember Happy trying to save Charle from the whole Exceed army in Edolas - and then trying to save the Exceeds from the king!" Lucy hesitated for a moment, then added: "He has a big mouth and a snarky attitude sometimes - but he saved my life, pretty much, the first time we met."

"Huh, yeah. And he's been calling you 'heavy' ever since."

"Ha! That's one of the more _polite_ terms." Lucy sighed, but it was an odd mixture of exasperation and affection - and something else perilously like nostalgia. She suddenly felt like twenty-four going on eighty.

"Do you - " Natsu began.

"Don't. Just don't. If we start on a _do you remember when_ stroll - or in our case more often panicked flight - down memory lane, then bad things will happen."

Natsu lifted his head slightly and peered at her rather warily from the couch. "Bad things like what?"

"Well first, I'm not going to make it into my bath before I collapse. And second, I'll feel even older than I do now and I am feeling _plenty_ old after the day we just spent." She hesitated and then continued: "And tired, dirty, cantankerous Lucy is not going to be quite as cuddly as clean, sleepy, not-so-grouchy Lucy."

Natsu managed a small huff of amusement and sat up enough to catch and hold Lucy's gaze. "You know what, Luce? I don't really mind either way. I mean - don't get me wrong! Cuddly, _relaxed_ Lucy is better… But I think we'll manage okay even when we're as old as we feel right now."

There was a short silence. Natsu was so unpredictable, Lucy thought. Most of the time he was totally oblivious - or pretended to be. And then he'd turn around and say exactly the right thing.

"I'll go get that bath then," she said at last, eyes unaccountably misty. Fortunately, the excess sentiment was absorbed by Natsu's next statement, which was distinctly less lover-like, but undeniably heartfelt.

"But if you _ever_ offer to babysit Gajeel's little terrors again _at the same time_ as Cana and Mira's hellborn babe-"

"I know, I know!" Lucy interrupted, groaning.

"Well, I may just leave along with Happy! Seriously, they'd make _anyone_ nostalgic for a life-and-death battle against every villain in the book…"

Abruptly, they found themselves grinning at each other. Lucy's warm brown eyes sparkled, and Natsu's dark eyes seemed to laugh back in response. There were going to be plenty of opportunities to build even more memories in the future.

But preferably away from toddlers and at least a little while longer. Maybe. Secretly, each of them thought that their _own_ couldn't possibly be as much trouble.

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 **[END]**

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 **A/Note:** All reviews, notes, comments, follows and favourites much appreciated! If you thought it was fun, even a couple of words would be great. \\(^u^)/

~Impracticaldemon


	2. The Best Laid Plans of Natsu and Lucy

**Author's Note:** A very busy summer caused this to be shorter than planned, but I hope you'll enjoy it!

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 **The Best Laid Plans of Natsu and Lucy  
Prompt: Flaws**

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Team Natsu had become known as the strongest team in Fairy Tail. Lucy still didn't quite understand why she'd been accepted—in fact expected—on the team, but then again, Fairy Tail was like that. Nothing quite made sense and that was fine. From time to time, Lucy, Natsu and Happy would go off on their own, usually to help pay Lucy's rent. It had started early on, because sometimes Lucy's share of the rewards from team missions wasn't enough, thanks to the destructive capabilities and propensities of Team Natsu.

Natsu and Happy were always very generous with their time, usually working with Lucy for free. Then again, she sometimes felt as though they occupied her apartment as much as she did. Also, the difficulty with their help was that their plans frequently had unforeseen flaws.

"You just had to knock out the key support pillar, didn't you?!" Lucy had shouted on one memorable occasion.

"You said to take out some pillars so you could get a clear line of sight!" Natsu had retorted.

"Well yeah, but I didn't mean the massive, decorated thing in the middle of the room! It never occurred to me that you'd go after _that_ one! And those monks were pretty ticked off at us afterwards!"

"We got rid of the giant rats."

"You vaporized part of their holy crypt!"

"They should have built it sturdier!" Pause. "Besides, cremation is the top choice of the truly modern, um, about-to-be-dead-person."

"What?!"

"It's in their pamphlet!"

"What?!"

"I got bored when they started talking about history and stuff—I figured you wouldn't get mad at me for not paying attention if I pretended to read something and nodded from time to time."

"…Well, that explains why you looked so serious when he told us where the bathrooms were."

The worst thing—or best thing—was that Lucy would always end up giggling, eventually. And then Natsu would grin. It worried Lucy just how much she loved that grin. It was triumphant and joyful, and at the same time warm and caring and reassuring.

Lucy had a feeling that at some point, when the current, rather terrifying threats to their lives and their world had been defeated—somehow—she might just want to kiss that grin. Of course, Natsu would probably dissolve into complete confusion if she did, but that was okay. She was pretty sure that he wouldn't be confused for long. Their plans might often be flawed, and so were they, but a bright grin might become a tight hug, and a tight hug might become a lingering kiss. A lingering kiss had possibilities.

So in the here and now—Natsu's world—they would go on making their flawed plans and dealing with the consequences. But in the hazy, hoped-for future—Lucy's world—they would continue to laugh at those flaws, while becoming closer in a different way. Lucy was becoming quite certain that the joy of life with Natsu would far outweigh its frustrations.

Suddenly, the world was full of blue cat.

"That's a weird smile, Lucy! What are ya' thinking about?" Then, watching the tell-tale blush creep over Lucy's face and down her neck as Natsu joined them, Happy came to his usual conclusion: "Aww, she liiiiiikes him!"

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[END]

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 **A/N:** Thank you for reading! \\(^u^)/


	3. He Sees Beneath Her Mask

**A/Note:** I wasn't able to write as much as I wanted for NaluWeek2017 ~ 2017 hasn't been a great year for health!

However, here is my third story, using the prompt for Day 5: Mask Day

The story is set in a kind of early 90s university AU, but the concepts and characters are mostly canon.

I hope you enjoy it!

~Impracticaldemon

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 **He Sees Beneath Her Mask  
Prompt: Mask Day**

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Lucy's first day of university was unremarkable—at least, it was unremarkable if you were the sole heiress to the Heartfilia fortune and used to your father being far more concerned than you were about outward appearances. In the midst of rushing walkers and bikers of all descriptions, Lucy was ushered onto the sidewalk in front of the registration building by the reliable, middle-aged chauffeur whom she'd known for years. While the majority of the students around her wore t-shirts of all descriptions paired with "lived-in" looking jeans, Lucy looked trim and demure in a crisp white blouse, perfectly-tailored navy capris, and pretty, matching sandals. She had the kind of accessories that didn't need a logo to tell you that they were expensive.

Her father didn't get out—he was already taking time out of his busy day to ensure that Lucy arrived on time and in proper style—but he did roll down his window and briefly clasp Lucy's hand. His words of farewell were more admonishing than encouraging, however:

"I'm still not sure about this place, Lucy, so remember our bargain: you can go here as long as you don't let yourself get dragged into any trouble by some of the weirder types you sometimes seem to hang out with—and as long as you meet your social obligations for the family and the company."

"Yes, Father. I understand. And I haven't forgotten next week's charity ball on Thursday evening." Lucy's serious, deep brown eyes stayed focused on her father, despite the stares she could feel from her soon-to-be classmates, especially the girls— _women_ , she corrected herself silently.

Jude Heartfilia accepted Lucy's assurances, cast a last, scathing look at the chattering, excited students, and waved the chauffeur back to the car. He managed a tight, unconvincing smile for his daughter, and then put up his window and leaned back in his seat, a big, shadowy figure behind the tinted glass. Lucy's smile in return was more convincing and yet somehow also sad. She watched the big car glide away, and as soon as it had disappeared around a corner she sighed, squared her shoulders, and turned to hurry toward the registration area. Unfortunately, she stepped right into somebody's path—although 'trajectory' might have been a more accurate word.

"Ow! Sorry!" Only long years of dance and gymnastics kept Lucy upright.

"Hey—look where you're going!" cried the human missile, as he spun around with Lucy in a rather tight, although apparently unintended embrace. He was more agile than he seemed, though; he didn't stagger as they parted, and his hand under her elbow helped her own efforts at balance.

Not surprisingly, they eyed each other curiously once the world stopped spinning. The human missile was actually a young man of medium height and decidedly athletic build, with spiky, cotton-candy pink hair, dark grey-green eyes, and a dusting of freckles. Lucy saw the dark eyes widen slightly as he examined her in turn. The clothes and shoes and so on were bad enough, she thought, but anybody would stare at her up-swept golden hair, which had been formed into a perfect chignon at the back. It was very pretty—and made her look like a 1940s actress at an evening party rather than a regular university student of many, many decades later.

"Are you going in to register?" Lucy asked, determined to be friendly and polite.

"Huh? Oh, yeah—I think so?" The pink-haired guy ran a hand through his spiky locks and then grinned cheerfully. "I mean yeah, yeah I am! That's a pretty good hairstyle—is it a new thing? I'll bet you could hide notes and weapons and stuff in it!"

From behind Pink-and-Spiky, a slightly taller, leaner man muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "idiot". Lucy realized that she hadn't even noticed the second man, and then flushed slightly when she realized that he was wearing cargo pants belted loose over boxers and not much else. He was a bit less odd than Pinky—Lucy had a tendency to first give and then refine nicknames—but he also seemed slightly dangerous. Maybe it was the stylized bird tattoo on the right side of his chest, or his very dark eyes and hair. _If I wrote these two into a story, he'd be Emo-Guy for sure. I'll bet he broods well. And Pinky would be Leaps-Before-Looking-Guy or Runs-Into-Trouble-But-Likes-It-Guy. They're both pretty attractive though._

"I can hear you, you know," Pinky said to Dark-and-Tattooed. Lucy jumped slightly: for a moment she'd thought he'd heard what she was thinking.

"I wouldn't bother to call you an idiot if you couldn't hear me," retorted D-and-T. He held out a hand to Lucy, and gave her a small, but apparently genuine smile. "I'm Gray. Flamebrain here is Natsu. We're in second year, but our friend Erza asked us to help out with registration—she runs the welcome table where you pick up your registration kits."

Gray's handshake was firm and literally cool, despite the warm sun. He was immediately elbowed out of the way by Pinky/Natsu. "Yeah, it gets us out of this afternoon's mega-line-ups with the general upper-year registration, crowd," he told her. "Can't wait until everything's completely automated."

"Like that'll help you," scoffed Gray. "You're still in trouble for trying to hit a campus computer last year because it said your code had errors. Good thing Erza was there to stop you."

Lucy jumped in before things could escalate.

"Oh… Well, um, I'm Lucy—nice to meet you. Both of you." Natsu's hand was dry and calloused, without a hint of sweat. In fact, he seemed impervious to the heat, although wearing a white Fairy Tail U scarf wound loosely around his neck seemed excessive. Sometimes Lucy thought it was her fate to meet the strangest people at any given location. Then again, she was okay with that.

After a few more courtesies (cut short by Natsu "accidentally" stepping on Gray's foot) and a few more discourtesies (cut short by Lucy with the tact of one forced young into the cut-throat politics of charitable fund-raising), the three of them went in. Erza turned out to be a rather frighteningly helpful third year with honest-to-goodness red (not orange or auburn) hair. These people apparently spent a fortune on hair dye. Lucy had meant to change as soon as her father had left, and before talking to anyone, but fate and Natsu had conspired against her. One look at Erza's face told Lucy that she'd been recognized. The upper-year didn't say anything, though; instead, she made Lucy's day by handing over her registration package without calling out her last name.

"Is-is there a washroom nearby?" Lucy asked, heartened by this kindness.

Erza was getting both guys set up with registration packages (and smacking them upside the head for hitting each other, which Lucy found slightly counter-productive as an example of good behaviour). She nodded at a doorway and said: "Down that hall, first door on the right.

When Lucy slipped back into the room several minutes later, she went quietly to the back of the registration line without speaking further with the upper-years. After all, Gray, Natsu and Erza were obviously friends of long-standing. In fact, Lucy had already realized that Erza was a well-known student leader and a competitive athlete of national standing—she should have recognized the name sooner. That probably meant that Gray and Natsu were just as important within the school community. Lucy didn't want it to seem as though she was presuming upon her chance encounter with Natsu earlier. He'd seemed very nice, though; she hoped that maybe she could find a way to get to know him better by proving herself as an up-and-coming Fairy Tail student. There was something about Natsu's grin that somehow stood out even more than the pink hair.

Lucy drew no attention at all as she patiently waited her turn, clutching at the key forms from her registration package. She was now wearing slightly worn cut-offs, a cute, rose-pink t-shirt, and the current popular choice in (cheap) canvas running shoes. The bracelet on one wrist was pretty, but not expensive. She had also managed to extract all hundred or so bobby pins from her hair (only a minor exaggeration!). After a moment's thought, she had decided to put most of her hair into twin-tails in order to beat the heat; she left her long bangs and a few other locks to frame her face, in order to escape from her overly-sophisticated "matchy-matchy girl" appearance of earlier.

When somebody jostled her slightly—clearly by accident—she decided to try out her new-found anonymity. She turned and smiled brightly.

"Kind of brutal in here isn't it?" she said to the pretty, dark-haired girl— _woman—_ behind her.

"Yeah, seriously."

They exchanged the conspiratorial grimaces of strangers commiserating over shared misfortune.

"I'm Lucy—I'm taking English with a focus on creative writing."

"Oh hey—me too! I'm Evelyn. Nice to meet you, Lucy! Sorry about bumping you—gotta admit, I was admiring your bag. It looks like it won't fall apart like my 'student special' here."

"Well, um, yeah… it was a present from my… dad. He believes in practical gifts and things that _keep their value and functionality_." Ev laughed and Lucy relaxed. Switching clothes was one thing, but the expensive leather schoolbag was actually something she'd chosen and liked, even though she realized most normal students couldn't afford it.

Lucy wasn't used to referring to her father as "dad"; she have to work on that (though not with the man himself). And technically he _had_ bought the bag for her. Her mother's estate provided her with a moderate allowance, but since her father had either inherited or managed the bulk of Layla Heartfilia's money and business interests, he paid for all of Lucy's living expenses. In a bid to retain as much independence as possible, Lucy had learned how to make her allowance stretch without being too obvious, which provided her with less expensive, more _normal_ clothes and paid for the occasional unsupervised outing.

She had only been chatting with her new friend for a few minutes when she spotted a familiar head of pink hair weaving through the crowd toward them. Her first thought was that it was a coincidence, since she now looked very different—and why would Natsu be looking for her anyway? Once or twice she saw Natsu pause for a moment and wrinkle his nose, as if to sneeze, but otherwise nothing interrupted his brisk stride directly to where she was standing (well, there were people in the way, but most of them moved as he approached).

"Hey Lucy! You didn't come back to the table! We could've helped you register you know… Oh, is this a friend of yours?" Natsu didn't even seem to notice that Lucy looked entirely different now. Or if he did he didn't comment.

Somehow—Lucy couldn't quite fathom it—Natsu convinced her to leave the line (she'd already traded numbers with Ev) and come back to the table for registration packages. Partway there, he slowed down a little and started to frown.

"Lucy? Did you change something? Erza said you'd probably gone to put on your mask—or take off your mask, I can't remember which. You seem pretty much the same to me." He came to a full stop right in the middle of the room and squinted at Lucy. Then he started to walk around her, checking her out from all angles. "Heh. Well, it's good to see Erza wrong for once! And Gray backed her up, too! This'll be great!"

"Wait! Natsu!" Lucy tried to pull away, but her escort seemed very determined.

When they arrived, Natsu slung his arm around Lucy's shoulders. "See Erza! No masks! I don't know how she slipped by Gray! You going blind or something, bro?"

Lucy found herself turning a little red. Natsu's arm was heavy and warm, but also comforting and even pleasant, despite the sticky weather. Erza gave her a sympathetic smile; Gray, busy a couple of feet away, rolled his eyes and muttered something that only Natsu heard. He was wearing a t-shirt now, which struck Lucy as more appropriate.

"Natsu," Erza said at last. "Lucy has changed every article of clothing and her shoes and hairstyle."

"What? You did?!" Natsu held Lucy out at arm's length. "What did you do that for? We might not have found you again!" He paused, and then peered closely at Lucy. "You know… I think you're right Erza. Lucy! You messed up your hair! I'll bet that's why you had to change. You shouldn't worry about us, though. We don't mind if you want to dress like a stuck up rich girl—right Gray? Erza?"

"I refuse to be associated with that statement," muttered Gray.

"Natsu…" Erza sounded deeply chagrined.

"Besides, it doesn't matter. Lucy can change her clothes as often as she wants—or even put on that mask you were talking about, Erza! I'll always know it's her!"

Natsu sounded so certain that Lucy wasn't inclined to disagree. She still didn't know him very well, but that didn't seem to matter. When he grinned at her, she grinned back. How odd to think that there might be people who didn't care about masks, when she'd lived with them all her life. Her heart seemed to thump just a little harder against her rib cage at the thought and she didn't object when Natsu gave her another one-armed hug before getting back to his job for Erza.

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 **Epilogue**

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Lucy didn't find out how Natsu could always track her down until several days later, at which point her vision of the power of love (or something like it) suffered a severe check. Erza kept avoiding the subject, but Gray answered her question directly, once she thought to ask him. It turned out that Natsu had a ridiculously good sense of smell.

"He… he _smelled_ me?" Lucy demanded. "I _smell_?!"

Gray tried to reassure her, but she found herself putting on extra layers of deodorant for quite a while after that. Eventually, Natsu complained that she smelled like a chemical factory, and Lucy delivered a rather incomprehensible rant. Erza led her away murmuring that strawberry cream cake would help.

Eventually—after Lucy had been pacified by cake—Erza said thoughtfully:

"I think that you are losing sight of something important, Lucy."

"Oh." (sniff)

"I agree that Natsu could track down almost anyone, because of his sense of smell. But you are the one he chose to find."

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 **[END]**


	4. The Lady and the Dragon

**Author's Note:**

My final submission for Nalu Week 2017! I hope you enjoyed there chapters. As always, all reviews and comments are greatly appreciated.

This story is a sequel to the previous chapter.

~Impracticaldemon

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 **The Lady and the Dragon  
Prompt: Intertwined**

Lucy became more and more impressed with Fairy Tail University as the school year progressed. It wasn't just that the profs were interesting—they were, but they were also a little strange—it was the way that the practical things were handled so as to leave time and energy for clubs and hobbies. For example, the student medical clinic was well-staffed and made full use of experienced nurse practitioners as well as doctors in order to reduce wait times. The cafeteria served decent food, and while it wasn't the gourmet meals that Lucy had grown up with, somebody obviously cared enough to make sure that it tasted good and that students with the more common special dietary needs weren't forced to either eat the same thing each day or buy expensive food off-campus.

The best thing about FTU was that nobody was forced to participate in intramural or varsity activities, but somehow nobody got left out either. Even the shyest students got taken in by a senior student, or by another student in their year who was either more outgoing or had some reason to already know the place well—for example, there were several students whose parents or older siblings had been at FTU in the past.

By the end of the first six weeks, as Lucy started to gear up toward midterms and pay more attention to when various papers were due, she was beginning to wonder how the place functioned—how could they afford it all without charging much higher fees? She'd heard that they had special funding from the government, but in her more creative moments Lucy imagined all sorts of things, from acting as a front for money-laundering—criminal outfits did sometimes run proceeds of crime through charities like universities and hospitals—to bizarre experiments that required an unsuspecting, yet intelligent group of test subjects.

The truth turned out to be a little different: FTU took in students with the potential for "magic", like some sort of not-very-exciting Hogwarts. Nobody actually studied magic—at least, not until much later. So Lucy was left to wonder and speculate and come up with creative stories with working titles such as "The Mob is Running my School but I Don't Care Because They Have Great Health Care". Her friends Levy (English and Library Sciences) and Ev (English and Creative Writing) were still giggling over "My Life as a Lab Rat: Year One".

She got her first inkling of the truth shortly before her last midterm. Naturally, it involved running into Natsu. In fact, she had seen quite a lot of the guy after school had started, despite the fact that they were in different years and faculties. Lucy sometimes wondered if he ever attended his own classes, because he had developed a tendency to walk her to class and then stay for the lecture. Occasionally he'd even stayed awake.

It was shortly before ten at night, and Lucy was racing toward the grocery store, hoping to pick up one of the key ingredients to successful studying: chocolate. Unfortunately, Natsu was moving too fast for Lucy to avoid him. There was a muffled "thud" as the two crashed into each other, late fall outerwear reducing much of the impact. As usual, Natsu was completely impervious to damage, and his muscular, solid build was barely rocked by the collision, but Lucy got tossed about three or four meters sideways.

"You okay?!" Natsu called to Lucy, as she struggled to get up.

 _Of course I'm not okay,_ she thought angrily, _you just hit me like a ton of bricks. Or a brick wall. Or whatever the hell the right metaphor is._ And yet… Lucy wasn't really hurt. It was probably all the strength training she'd been doing with Erza.

"You should look where you're going!" Lucy shouted back at Natsu.

Natsu took this as a good sign—she was conscious, anyway—and he immediately went to the heart of the matter: "Look, I'd better get inside—that way at least one of us can pick up food for studying!"

Lucy watched in slight disbelief as he left her sitting where she was, scrapes and bruises and all, and rushed into the store. He was probably right that getting to the store was the priority. At the same time, she would have appreciated a bit of sympathy. Natsu was like that though—as long as you weren't dead or unconscious, you were pretty much good to go. In some ways it was a vote of confidence.

The storekeeper was standing at the door when Lucy hobbled up. He gave Lucy a slight smile and let her in.

"Your young man said that you probably had a chocolate emergency and could I please just wait a moment or two."

Lucy returned the smile sheepishly and ignored the implication. "I do actually. When things get really tough, I like to have a nice thick bar of semi-sweet baking chocolate on hand. It, uh, doesn't disappear as fast and—well, there are reasons."

"Aisle five, I'll wait for you at the cash."

"Thanks!"

When Lucy reached aisle five, she found Natsu staring pensively at the baking supplies. He sniffed when she approached—something that she was getting used to—grinned toothily, and then handed her two bars of semi-sweet baking chocolate.

"I know it's dumb, but I couldn't remember whether you wanted semi-sweet, extra dark or unsweetened."

"Nobody eats unsweetened, Natsu."

"Yeah? Huh."

"What about you, what were you here for?"

"Oh…" Natsu looked oddly embarrassed. "I just thought, you know, that you might have run low on chocolate. I smacked into you outside because I was focussed on what exact type you needed."

Lucy felt her heart-rate accelerate a little. He'd had that effect on her ever since the first time they'd met. If "met" was the right word. It was surprising how often Natsu seemed to literally bump into her. A couple of times it had even been beneficial: for example, a few days ago he'd knocked her flying just before a large piece of metal roofing had slid down on top of the spot where she'd been standing. While Natsu's tackles were the opposite of gentle, the sheet metal would have hurt her badly if he hadn't forced her out of the way.

"Oh…" _Way to go, Lucy. Very articulate._ "I mean—thanks, Natsu!" Then her brain caught up with the situation and she added: "I suppose you were going to bring it over and then pass out in my room while I studied?"

"Your bed is way comfier than mine, and I don't have to wake up to find Gray hogging the shower."

"So you've told me." They'd been having this conversation for three weeks now. Natsu was proving as impervious to hints, orders and outright threats as he was to bodily harm. _You know, I meant to ask…_ "Natsu, how come nothing ever hurts you? It's kind of weird, in a good way."

"Oh, most people who can channel magic are damage resistant. I thought you knew."

Lucy stared at him. She considered laughing, but he was obviously serious, and as unconcerned as if they were talking about the weather. _Magic_? "Magic, Natsu?"

"Come on, Luce, we'd better pay and get out of here."

"Huh? Natsu!" She hurried after him, clutching the chocolate.

Not long afterward they found themselves back outside under the cold, eerie light of the late November moon. It was as good a night as any to believe in magic. Lucy shivered. Natsu wrapped an arm around her without hesitation, and she relaxed as his heat began to seep into her. He was always extra-warm, which was a good thing now that the weather was so cool.

When they got to Lucy's dorm, Natsu stopped a few feet from the door and turned Lucy around to face him. She'd never seen him so serious.

"I tend to live my life from day-to-day, Luce," he began. "I don't ask why and what a whole lot—I figure I can leave that to people like you and Levy. But whatever happens, I'll be there for you. You're the one I'm meant to look out for—and maybe vice versa."

Lucy was startled, but didn't protest, when Natsu pulled her into a tight hug.

"… Natsu…"

"Sometime, in the past, though I don't really understand it, I waited for too long to do this." Natsu continued to hold her close against his body, so that she could feel his muscles move, even through his jacket. He nuzzled her ear, and she jerked her head back—out of surprise, not dislike. In fact, the sensation of his warm breath on her neck was provoking sensations very different from dislike.

"Lucy? What"—his question, whatever it was, went unfinished. Their eyes met, and then their lips.

Somewhere in the far recesses of her mind Lucy noted that there was something about a kiss that couldn't be properly expressed on paper—although in the future she'd no doubt try again. Warm lips, warm bodies, their arms now wrapped around each other in an effort to be as close as possible. Lucy felt something like fire run along her nerves as Natsu's fingers brushed across the soft skin of her neck before twining in her hair. Her eyes were closed, but for a moment that didn't seem to matter; somehow, she saw a dragon, as huge and red as anything out of myth, outlined in the darkness behind Natsu. Even as the vision faded, she wondered—just for a fleeting instant—what she would see if she could see herself. One day perhaps she'd find out.

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 **[END]**

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 **Best wishes for the rest of the summer!** Please review or comment if you enjoyed the story and have a moment. Even a few words is very encouraging! **\\(^u^)/**


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